CES: Yesterday’s 4K

LAS VEGAS – CES 2015. The marketing departments for major TV manufacturers are now bored of 4K and unsurprisingly introduced a bunch of new terminologies at this year’s CES including SUHD, HDR pixel splitting and other marketing gimmicks. Why? Becuase 4K TVs are rapidly dropping in price to mainstream market prices and TV manufacturers need a new profitable product base. Here’s the round up:

The Majority of TVs at this year’s CES were 4K with only a handful 1080p TVs on display

Samsung’s SUHD TVs are to compete with OLED TVs. SUHD include LEDs coated with Quantum Dots however its very unlikely this technology will come even close to competing with the superb contrast and vibrancy OLEDs currently produce

Many TV manufactuers including Samsung, Lg, Sony, TCL, Philips & Panasonic are introducing HDR in their new TVs. Netflix and Dolby are also planning future HDR content promising ‘lifelike’ displays. Contrast is always very important in TVs – the difference between white and dark areas – so this is a good area for improvement.

Flat vs Curved: Samsung claim its curved TVs are very popular and accordingly were showing off four series of new curved 4K UHD TVs for 2015. On the other hand, Sony, LG & Sharp were concentrating on their new super-thin TVs.

Smart TVs – The new generation: Samsung and LG introduced new versions of their own operating systems for their smart TV. However, Sony and Sharp have embraced Google’s Android TV which is very exciting for the smart TV market (no offence custom smart slugging operating systems). The ability to access a much wider range of Android apps on your telly sounds great! (Especially for XBMC / KODI for them MKVs). Roku have announced their smart TV system will be introduced on some smaller brands like TCL and Haier. Still no adopters of Ubuntu TV OS?

With CES now over it’s exciting to know this year might be the year most people can afford to adopt a new 4K TV. Hopefully content makers will start creating and pushing more 4K content – Netflix is said to have already recorded a lot of their programmes in 4K. All we need now is an Android-TV enabled Smart 4K OLED TV with 3D – Is that too much to ask for?